As writers we are exposed to different types of writing. Play writing, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, creative nonfiction- the list goes on and on. From day one I have considered myself a fiction writer, and that was that. Set in stone, forever known. But, that has changed over the course of these last two weeks.

My friends told me to be prepared for what they called “Poetry Boot Camp,” but the group of desks and a stool in the front of the room aren’t as intimidating as they make it out to be.

I don’t particularly like change. I never thought I’d be saying this but I have developed a true love for poetry and the feeling that it brings people. It sounds cliché but, I have never in my life experienced something quite like it. I remember sitting in class and reading “A Blessing” by James Wright. I was sitting in my desk thinking about how the poem was saying so much to me as a reader in just a few lines.

Before my recent poetry class I never understood how a poem could move you in a way that is difficult to put into words simply because the words were chosen carefully and placed in a specific order. I am still very passionate about fiction as a writer but, I think merging my love for both poetry and fiction gives me great advantages as a writer. I’ve found myself going back to my short stories for poem ideas. It’s a great place to start if I’m stuck.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said, “Poetry: the best words in the best order.” And as a writer I am forever searching for those words to put them in my own “best” order.

–Madison George, Social Media Editor

Last week, I turned eighteen. I ate pad thai and tried on prom dresses with my close friends. I came home and blew out candles, ate cake, watched as my family embraced and congratulated me on becoming an adult—legally, I was allowed to buy lottery tickets, get married, vote. But, as I watched the crumb littered dishes stack by the sink, I realized that I didn’t feel different at all. I was still seventeen. And sixteen. And two. Sandra Cisneros wrote, “The way you grow old is kind of like an onion or the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one.” We are all the ages we have ever been.

As writers, we can use our journey of growing older in unique ways. On the days we are feeling three years old, we can write stories about being on a playground, kicking our feet out from swings and sliding against sand. On the days we are feeling seventeen, we can write poems about preparing to leave our families, going to college, starting lives on our own.

Whenever I feel like I am in a writing rut, I always try to trace my memories back as far as I can and write from the perspective of who I was. Trying this can help you vary the kinds of voices you use in your work, and also help broaden the topics you write about. If you need a little extra push, here are some poems about childhood/ adolescence that stand out to me:

• Flashcards by Rita Dove

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2007/08/27

• Three Songs at the End of Summer by Jane Kenyon

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/26442

• Believing in Iron by Yusef Komunyakaa

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16182

Enjoy your journey! I hope you have as much fun as I did.

–Raegen Carpenter, Poetry Editor

Sometimes I am not a writer.

Despite the common misconception that many have that a writer is someone who “writes”, this is quite untrue. There is more that constitutes a writer than just the act of putting paper to pen. For some people writing is a spiritual expedition, one in which the worlds they create are more than just a figment of imagination but friends, cohorts, the voices in side their heads if I may. Borrowing Sidney Sheldon’s words:

“A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.”

Writing is becoming God and creating matter out of thin air. I learned in Physics (and it might be the only thing I learned) that matter cannot be created or destroyed and yet writers defy that rule. I am a writer when I am creating more than ink on paper, more than black pixels on a computer screen. I am a creator of people, feelings, and moments that are more real to some people than their own lives.

And as a writer, I break down barriers and flout social rules and shed light on the shadows of humanity.

But sometimes I fall short. Sometimes my first draft is something that I use to mop up the spilled coffee on my table, something that I’d have to beg a dog to eat.

But I get back up. I pick up my pen. And I become a little bit closer to God.

The following a three poems that I feel come unreasonably close to describing the unique experience of writers everywhere:

“Teaching Apes to Write Poems” by: James Tate

“Beware: Do Not Read This poem” by: Ishmael Reed

“Oatmeal” by: Galway Kinnell

–Stephanie Thompson, Public Relations & Marketing